Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12302020

(Sensation Comics #104 from August 1951.  Cover by Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs.  Stolen from dc fandom)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week week weeks months years ending 12312020. 

"Mainstream comics, despite any appearance to the contrary, are enormously socially conservative. And it’s clear to me that I’m a bit of an embarrassment to comics in general and comics fans in particular, who seem to be afraid their girlfriends will find out they might have an erotic thought or two.  I’d suggest they talk and listen to their girlfriends a tad more than they do."  -Howard Chaykin.

• Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets cell pad pod phones and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shannon and I'll be your host.  It's been... a time.
• Hey Shano where have you been man?  WTF dude?  Holy crap dude?
• Here.  Just here.  And other places.  You know.  Life and stuff.  I mean...  Where were you?  That's the real question. 
• On November 10th of last year, 2019, before the plague, my mother died. Without warning.  Totally fine.  Enjoying retirement.  Enjoying being a grandmother.  Enjoying the house she just re-modeled and moved into a year before.  Enjoying her two little dogs.  Living life then gone.  I haven't talked about it much.  I'm her only child.  My father passed away, also without warning, in 2013 so it was just me with a lot to do.  A lot to take care of.  And then the plague made it all more complicated.  This is not a complaint.  This is just facts.  It's been hard. It's still hard.  2020 has been hard for most of us. 
• My mom was born on August 10th, 1951 in a forgotten world called America. Her name was Sara Jane Stewart.  She had two older sisters and two younger brothers.  She also had an alien family that came to Earth in a spaceship and lived in that spaceship in the woods.  She would pack a lunch for the whole space family and go spend the day with them in the woods.  When she would return home, her normal Earth family would be puzzled as to where all the food went.  But she had already told them.  Her space family ate it.  My mother, Sara Jane, could fly when she was young.  She flew from her house to the library.  Or to the store.  Or to a friends house.  Just wherever it was that a kid in the 50s needed to go, she flew.  No one in the family ever disputed this.  It was always presented as a simple mundane fact of life.  One time I asked her why she stopped flying and she said it was because she got too big.  My mom was a talented artist and musician.  She could make, do or create anything she put her mind to.  She started playing piano for the church when she was a teenager and played there, with the exception of going away for college or vacations, until she died.  She met my dad, David Nelson Smith while she was in college and they got married.  She became Sara Stewart Smith but also went by Sara Jane Smith like the Doctor Who character.  They had a kid.  Me.  The house was always filled with music.  She would play piano practicing for church or some wedding.  She would teach piano to the other kids in town.  I was her worst student.  She would play current contemporary hits and TV themes.  What I remember most is her playing classical music.  I think it was primarily Mozart and Bach.  A little  Rachmaninoff.  She was a the real deal.  A real working musician.  She was a school teacher, a private teacher, played for two churches, a choir director, created holiday programs, played weddings, funerals, high school events, she wrote original music.  Everyone in a three county area probably heard her play piano at some point.  She brought comfort and joy to people.  She played the music for some the most important events of countless people's lives.  She made her part of the world better.  She flew.
• Just a few days after my mother died we lost Tom Spurgeon.  I was still in shock and it just didn't seem real to read that he was gone too. He was a titan.  He was a hero to me.  The Comics Reporter was a daily part of my life. It was my morning newspaper.  In the few times I got to see Tom in person he was so kind and encouraging to me.  And you hear that from so many people.  His death has left a huge void in comics.  No one has put a dent in it and I don't think anyone ever will.  Tom was great on Twitter too.  I found myself going through his old tweets in the mornings when I would have normally been reading The Comics Reporter and one day I just started following everyone he followed.  I just started clicking on all of them.  Tom followed almost everyone that had anything to do with comics.  And I started following them too.  I don't know why.  I guess I wanted to see what it was that he saw when he scrolled through his twitter feed.  Like, if I followed the whole of comics and fused it all together in my brain I'd have some sort of version of what The Comics Reporter would have been on any give day.  I know.  It's stupid.  But I did it.  And it was hard.  Twitter only let's you follow so many people a day.  Tom Spurgeon followed 4,120 people on Twitter.  I think I got most of them.  I think of it as "the whole of comics". I follow "the whole of comics" and it hasn't put a dent into the void Tom left. 
• So... comics.  I don't know guys.  I don't know.  What a strange year for comics.  Some great stuff came out that couldn't be celebrated with the full backing of signings and con appearances.  A lot of crap came out that probably deserved the direct market chaos it suffered.   I read a lot of comics during this pandemic. New comics that cost too much.  Old comics for $1 or less from the clearance bins.  Showcase collections.  Essential collections.  Epic collections. Years long runs of comics on Comixology.  Webcomics.  Comics posted a panel at a time on Instagram.  Graphic novels.  Etc. Etc.  A lot of them were good.  Some of them were great.  Some of them were terrible but I've got room for those too.  Some of them were even worth writing about.  I hope to give some of them their due in the... future?  Real honest to goodness reviews liken in the olden days.  But for now let's talk about...

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK MONTH YEAR PAST SEVERAL YEARS...

Eddie's Week by Patrick Dean.  Published by Birdcage Bottom Books.

Available here.

Eddie's Week by the great Patrick Dean is one of the bright spots of 2020 for me.  I've got a longer review in the works but for now I'll just say that this one of the few comics of the past decade that I've read more than once and I can't wait to read it again.  It's truly everything I want comics to do and be.  Every page fills my heart.  This is the good stuff.  It's the mundane dancing in the rain with the absurd.  Patrick's art is so alive you can hear this thing sigh.  Don't be stupid.  Get a copy. 

• But don't just take my word for it, check out Panel Patter's best of 2020 too.
• So, again with the comics.  Y'all read Savage Dragon lately... Seen any good movies lately... 

• Let's get to what 90% of comics discussion devolves to, movies.  I'm no better than any of you.  I watch the super hero movies.  2020 has been, well there was a damned global pandemic so, movies kinda didn't happen. I don't know if the industry will ever recover.  I think low budget straight to streaming may be the state of the industry for a long time.  I liked the Birds of Prey deal.  I thought Wonder Woman 1984 (or is it really called WW84?) was worse than bad.  It was boring.  The cast was enjoyable enough.  Pedro Pascal really chewed up the screen and if you took out every scene he wasn't in, you'd have a passable episode of the Twilight Zone that would still be dismissed as a rip off of the Wishmaster franchise.  The script is just bad with a couple of side dishes full of wrong.  Hard, hard wrong.  A great cast and director can't always overcome a bad script.  Sometimes a turd is a turd. 
• And before we go, let's check in on our man Francis and see how he's been doing since the last Parade-O-Links.

• Damn.  Shit got real for real. It's been a hell of year.  Hang in there buddy. 
• Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics.  Do you make comics?  Maybe you should hire me to write comics. 
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12162013

(G.I.JOE A Real American Hero issue 2.  Cover by Herb Trimpe.  Stolen from ComicVine.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 12152013 12162013:

"I also think that a lot of the defeatist horseshit that gets passed around about comics being really hard and hey, what are you going to do is something in which non-creatives as a collective whole maybe shouldn't get to traffic in because, with very few exceptions, they simply haven't accomplished enough to merit that cynicism."  -Tom Spurgeon who celebrates a birthday today.  Well, I don't know specifically that he is celebrating it.  I can't see him.  I don't have laser eyes or mind bullets. He may simply be ignoring a birthday today.  Whatever works best for him.  Regardless, he deserves it to be a nice day.

• Hey brothers and sisters.  Christmas is close with New Year right behind.  I just have to make it through five more days of work until I take a nice vacation.  I'm not going anywhere.  I'm just not going to work.  Were in the height of "best of list" season.  I hope to post mine before the new year.  Maybe.  In the meantime, myself and a bunch of other people (possibly all men, I'm not sure, I have not seen all of their genitalia) named off some favorite comics over at The Comics Reporter.
• There is not a doubt in my mind that Ed Kramer will be strolling through the hotels of next year's Dragon*Con footloose and fancy free.  Well, maybe he will be in a motorized wheel chair.  Either way, he will be there looking like the villain in a Rob Zombie directed James Bond movie.  It's gonna be gross and it's gonna suck.  

• This piece by Robert Steibel on Fantastic Four Annual #6 by Jack Kirby and whatshisname is a great read.  
• Derik Badman reads a lot of comics that sound interesting. 
• Korean Batman.  Almost as good as Rainbow Batman. 
• Maybe that manga stuff will catch on one day.  Just like soccer. 
• “We are all temporary custodians,” she said of her collection. “Until they work out that eternal life, fountain-of-youth thing, we only get to hold it for a little while. We get to hang it on the wall and say, ‘Oh, that’s fun.’”
• That Hernandez kid has a lot of potential. 
• We appreciate Rob Clough and he appreciates us. 
• New York Times?  I guess that's pretty cool but let me know when you're in the Daily Bugle.
• I've been watching a lot of G.I.Joe cartoons lately.  Not sure what is wrong with me.

• This one is old but I never get tired of reading about Jim Shooter. 
• As we get close to the end of 2013 (the worst year of my life) I'm thinking about Superman and Warner Bros complete failure in commemorating the 75th anniversary of Siegel and Shuster's characters.  Sure there was a movie (I'm sure its timing was just coincidence) and sure they made that video (which completely ignored they Byrne era and a bunch of other big things) and that awful awful awful logo, but I feel like there should have been more.  A TV special maybe.  At least a parade.  Was there a parade?  Did I miss the parade? 
• Personally, I hate graphic novels.  This is because I cannot afford them.  I used to be a retailer with a national book chain that sold a lot of graphic novels and manga.  That book chain is out of business now.  Others will follow.  I don't know what the future holds. I don't know what the answers are.  But I do know that I recently bought Love and Rockets collections and Richard Sala's last comic on ComiXology for less than $6 each and I was pretty happy about it. 

• This one was short pals.  December is a slow moth for comics and a super busy month for everything else in my life.  But fear not.  Soon it will be new year and we will dance like Ann Margret on LSD. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too now.  I guess it's a law or something.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 07222012

(Image of the Dark Knight stolen from Ron Marz's twitter feed.)

Special note from the editor (Me):  Human beings were murdered and wounded at a movie theater in Colorado this week.  That is awful.  There is no punchline.  I'm truly saddened and angry about it.  I pray for the families and the community but also I pray we could stop hurting each other.  I pray we don't get used to it and accept it as just a part of this modern life.  I write these weekly link parade posts over the course of the week and then edit them on the weekend for you to read on Sunday or Monday.  The things I put in here earlier in the week are not as funny or interesting as they were before the murders.  It all seems petty at the moment.  But, we press on. 

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 07222012:

• So there is a new Batpants movie.  I don't get paid until this coming Friday so if everyone could just not talk about it until after the weekend of July 27th that would be great.  Thanks!

(Bane Capital stolen from Comics Alliance.)

• Oh dear lord my beloved readers.  How is it possible that Rush Limbaugh has more money than we do?  How can this be!
• Speaking of Batpants, Matt Seneca talks about Josh Simmons amazing Batman comic from a few years ago. 
• I wrote reviews of The Walking Dead, Earth 2, Adventure Time and Marceline and The Scream Queens.  
• Jim Rugg of the Tell Me Something I Don't Know Podcast interviewed the great Mike Mignola (of Rocket Raccoon fame... and Hellboy) at HeroesCon.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.
• Frank Santoro has another New Talent Showcase up with help from Matt Seneca and Ariel LeBeau. 
• Those happy young fellers over at Comic Books Are Burning in Hell talked about a whole mess of happy doings and goings on. 

(Kochalka and Thompson stolen from Kochalka's tumblr.)

• Comic-Con continued to dominate a lot of the news this week.  Above is a pretty great pic of Eisner award winners James Kochalka and Craig Thompson.  Most of the best bits of Comic-Con coverage have been collected by Eisner award winner Tom Spurgeon here. 
• Speaking of Kochalka.  Sweet blob love.
• Comics Alliance is happy to provide you with this week's heart warming.  Foot massages cost extra. 
• Congratulations to Rich Tommaso on the successful Kickstarting of The Cavalier Mr. Tompson.  Rich is not only one of my favorite cartoonists but also one of my favorite people.  I'm excited about more and more people getting to see his stuff in print. 
• I'm also excited to see Box Brown's Andre the Giant book get picked up by First Second. 
• Rob Clough talked about Benjamin Marra. 

(Chris Ware SPX poster art stolen from the SPX tumblr.)

• As the roar of Comic-Con coverage begins to quite down the Small Press Expo is heating up.  The special guests list covers several of the greatest living north American cartoonists.  Maybe you want to come to my house, pick me up and drive me to that show. 
• Sean T. Collins has written at length about Love and Rockets.  If someone could come over, mow my yard, feed my kids and put up the dishes so that I could read it all that would be super. 
• I took my kids to Rob-Con and had a really good time.  More about that later. 
• Tom Spurgeon posted a list of bullet points about his health related challenges over the past year (or really, the past many years).  I've lived with a lot of those same challenges in my family.  They can be hard to talk about and harder to articulate in a way that is useful.  But Tom is the best so he lays it all out in a matter-of-fact way that I think anyone could learn something from.  If you only read one link I post this week it should be this one.  I am personally grateful that Tom's health has improved.  I wish him continued good health for more years than any of us deserve.  For the past several years The Comics Reporter has been for me what my dad's morning newspapers have been for him.  I honestly don't know how I could get though that first cup of coffee without it. 

(The great Gene Colan stolen from The Invincible Gene Colan Blog.)

• I've been thinking about Gene Colan a lot this week.  Gene Colan passed away a year ago on June 23.  I don't think I ever met him but I still miss him like crazy.  I have a note he wrote to his fans pinned up on my desk.  It reads, "Do what you love- do it every day.  Put all that you have into it- and all good and great things will follow.  I love you all, Gene Colan."  I fail to live up to that note every day.  But, I read it every day and it helps me try a little harder. 
• And finally, forgotten documentary footage has been discovered from San Diego Comic-Con 1975:

Oh, and one more last thing!  Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other?  It's true!  And, I'll probably respond.  Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes.  It's your intronet.  Have fun!

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 06242012

(Pic of Doc from GI Joe stolen from tumblr stolen from GI Joe as viewed through the magic of Netflix.)

Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening. Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 06242012:

• HeroesCon! As I type this, (Friday night with one Old Fashioned, one Manhattan and three celery sticks crammed with peanut butter) HeroesCon in Charlotte NC is still going on and I'm sure my bestest pals are living it up and having a fine time.  (I've already seen photo evidence on twitter.)  Everything I've heard about the show so far sounds like big attendance and good sales.  I'm hearing good sales reports from dealers and that is probably the most important thing for the longevity of a mainstream show like this.   I could not attend this year but you can see my HeroesCon pre-show report here.   Sometime this coming week I'll put together a report (with help from an on location pal).  If you have pics or your own report that you would like for me to link to then send me the link.  In the meantime, you can catch a lot of great stuff on twitter under the #heroeson hashtag. 
• Oxford American had an interview with Brad McGinty as well as a great comic by Brad about moving up north.  And mayonnaise.  I miss Brad since he moved up north and I don't even live where he used to live either. 
• The year 1977 was pretty rad. 
• Comic books continued to burn in hell.
• Box Brown told us something we did not know. 
• Cake looked like a lot of fun.  I wanna go one year so you Cake people keep at it okay? 
• Gabby Schulz recently updated his website.  I think he is one of the best five or so living cartoonists in North America.  I want you to give him your money.
• Speaking of Schulz-  you probably want to go ahead and buy me a copy of this. 
• Rich Tommaso also updated his website.  After you give Gabby Schulz all your money I'd like for you to go earn some more money then give that to Rich Tommaso. 
• People!  People!  People!  Tom Spurgeon has been going through the comics he read and enjoyed during the 80s.  These short articles have been fantastic.  Some of the comics he talks about are some of my 80s faves but most of them were the comics I had only heard about and therefore coveted because I did not have access to them.  I don't really have a way to link to them because Tom is not real big on using tags, (he does not use tags at all) so, you probably just need to go to The Comics Reporter and just hunt for them.  Tom has been posting a lot of short reviews lately so that's cool.  Or, just go ahead and read the entire site.  Trust me, you do not have anything better to do.
• Grant Morrison is now a part of something called the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  I wonder if killing the Queen in The Invisibles was taken into consideration? 

• Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Chippendale's studio. 
• I'd like to announce that I'm willing to write the crap out of Daredevil right now. 
• Super short reviews:  I read Harbinger #1 and X-O Manowar #2 from Valiant and I really liked them.  
• DC has a new reader survey up.  I took it.  It was short and easy.  You should take it even if you don't read DC comics because the survey really does seem targeted at wanting to know what YOU want.  And I really want people to know what I want.  I mean, have you read this website?
• Hey, could you buy this for me and my daughter?  Thanks!
• Joey Weiser's Monster Isle has floated under the Wide Awake Press umbrella of webcomics. 
• Paul Pope + Adventure Time = happy. 
• The Walking Dead is a very big deal.  But it is not an unprecedented deal.  It was not that long ago that creator owned titles from Image were handing Marvel it's ass.  From 1992 to 2002 Image had more top selling books than Marvel did.  But then Marvel and DC flooded the shelves with event comics and dominated the sales charts with nonsense for the past decade.  So the idea that Image would regain the top of the charts is a big deal but what is interesting to me is how The Walking Dead got there.  The big difference for me between the Dead and the Image comics of the 90s is that The Walking Dead really found its audience after it made its way to trade paperback.  It was really through the book stores that The Walking Dead collections took off.  It is a book that took off and got noticed by Hollywood in spite of the direct market.   And its formula for success is in stark contrast with Marvel, and specifically Joe Quesada, who seem to have an out right contempt for the trade paperback and/or graphic novel.  Lessons to be learned. 

• And lastly, let's talk about NASCAR again.  What if 5.3 million people watched the Batmobile win a professional motorsports race and no one in comics noticed?  That's right, as I mentioned last week, NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a race driving a car painted up to promote The Dark Knight Rises.  And he did not just win, he dominated the race leading the most laps.  That means that for three or four hours, the 5.3 million people that watched the race on television plus the 82,000 people in attendance were mainly looking at a Batman symbol moving at over 190mph.  And it's bigger than that.  The victory was the main story on ESPN's Sportscenter for two days.  (For the nerds: Sportscenter is kind of a big deal.)  And this is not like a TV commercial or some viral intronet horsepoop that you just ignore.  This is the thing people tuned into watch.  So, Time Warner successfully got their Batman movie promotion in front of millions of eyes over a two or three day period.  And no one in comics noticed.  I just find it a little odd.  Does the comics blogosphere only cover the Batman related news the Time Warner PR department sends them?  The comics blogosphere sure goes crazy when they get some Marvel or DC PR about some sports related comic book thing that one one reads.  I don't have answers but the thing did raise some questions.  And I'm not trying to knock the hustle of any bloggers or or comics "journalists".  I love those guys/gals.  I'm not even sure I have a point.  I guess if I had a point it would be something like, dang, comics coverage is very myopic.  But ya know what nerds, that car looked awesome and I enjoyed it.  Your loss. 

(Destro, Major Bludd and the Barroness watch as Xamot and Tomax demonstrate some sort of robot baby device developed by M.A.R.S.  Stolen from J. Chris Campbell's twitter feed.)

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 06172012

(Sexy Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings lady by Rob Ullman stolen from Atom Bomb Bikini.)

Just because file under other does not currently have a lot of time to talk about all the wonderful things that should be filed under other it does not mean that wonderful things are not happening. Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics etc. during the week ending 06172012:

• This week everything came up Crogan.  The great Chris Schweizer was features in a lengthy interview at The Comics Reporter.  Schweizer was also features on the War Rocket Ajax podcast.  Listen to the very end of the podcast, past the end music to hear a great Schweizer vs. gator story.  Schweizer is a master class level cartoonist and one of the most likable guys you will ever meet but the real thing that sets him apart from common man is that he has gator stories.  Do you have gator stories?
• A lot of awful things happened in comics this week.  Some of them involved Catwoman's butt.  I'm not going to talk about Catwoman's butt.
• Speaking of not-Catwoman's butt- Dale Earnhardt Jr., the world's most popular race car driver (currently ranked 2nd in championship points) will be driving a Batman  (The Dark Night Rises) themed race car this afternoon (and by this afternoon, I mean Sunday June 17 at noon in Michigan, USA.) and it is probably the coolest looking race car I've ever seen.  If the Batmobile wins that race my head will be exploded. 

• The Batmobile pictured above was averaging speeds over 200mph in practice on Friday and Saturday but late Saturday evening NASCAR made the totally insane move of changing the tires that will be used on the left side of the cars during the race.  The different tire is slower but decidedly more dangerous.  The theory is that because the drivers were setting record breaking speeds that the way to keep them from going too fast and possibly having blowouts is to make them use an awful six year old tire that will make them all wreck before they get going fast enough to wreck.  NASCAR is an insane stupid governing body folks.  But at least they ain't professional boxing and them boys (and girls) go real fast.  Oh, and Batman!  (See, comics everybody.  Comics!)
• UPDATE:  The Batmobile won!
• Speaking of Batpants- Batman is crazy yo.
• Speaking of crazy- Oh that wacky Owlman. 
• My pal Jeremy Massie had a new baby.  (Via Jeremy Massie's wife.)  Babies are expensive.  Go buy his comics or something. 
• Can I just take a moment to tell you that I loves me some J. Chris Campbell?  And J. Chris Campbell loves him some Spider-Man.  I loves me some Spider-Man too.  My 1st Spidey comics were Marvel Team-Up 85 and Marvel Team-Up Annual 2.  Both were from 1979 but I'm not sure which came out first.  They are in my basement on a spinner rack.  (Oh, and J. Chris buddy-  you should totally go buy the first three or four Essential Spider-Man collections at HeroesCon for like five bucks a piece.  They are wonderful.) 
• Oh hey wow, HeroesCon is totally a thing that is happening this week.  Most all of my most beloved comics pals and comics heroes are going to be there.  The guest list is staggering.  I hope to be there on Indie Island and I hope to find the time to talk more about it this week. 
• I really want to link to this nice piece Tom Spurgeon did on Daredevil over at The Comics Reporter but teh intronets is currently not letting me access The Comics Reporter.  It tells me it is unable to connect to my database which is totally horse patootie because I can access the rest of teh intronets.  So, here is a link to a really cool thing Matt Seneca wrote about Daredevil. 
• Speaking of Matt Seneca-  Comic books still continue to burn in hell and they seem to be burning better and better each week.  You know what the difference between fanboy podcasts and serious critical discourse podcasts is?  8.6.  That's right.  8.6 on the F-bomb-o-meter.  
• Speaking of podcasts-  Last week's Tell Me Something I Don't Know featured Ed Piskor and it was very good. 
• Shaenon Garrity is most likely insane so you probably want to go check out these webcomics reviews before the flood of webcomic link emails to The Comics Journal shuts down the entire introwebnets forever. 
• Gonna have to cut this week's report a bit shorter than I had hoped.  I've got a notepad full off a bunch of other things I wanted to talk about but I just got back from Chattanooga TN earlier today.  (And by today, I mean Saturday when I typed this up.)  The good thing is, as of yesterday, no one I am related to is in the hospital.  Knock on wood.  The bad news is I've been coughing up something scarier than Prometheus for the past week.  I'ma gonna go to bed.  Oh, but first, let's talk about Tennessee radio.  Tennessee is a radio black hole.  No rock.  No roll.  No sanity.  There are only three kinds of radio in Tennessee-  Country, Jesus and whatever-you-call-the-kind-of-radio-where-they-only-talk-about-impeaching-and/or-murdering-President-Obama.  Black.  Hole.  Good luck not going crazy Tennessee. I honestly very much enjoy Tennessee and its fine people but dang, that radio, whooo hoo wee.  Yalls is crazy.  Jesus may love country music but he does not like hate so you might wanna tone down the whole murdering the President thing.  God bless ya. 

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.